Tuesday, January 17, 2017

No Negotiations Without Preconditions

No Black person with a prominent platform should meet with Donald
Trump or representatives from the Trump administration without preconditions.
The United States government has a long-standing policy of setting
preconditions for negotiating with hostile state actors. This is a policy Black
America should employ as we move into the age of Trumpism. The duplicitous nature
of Donald Trump’s rhetoric has damaged any credibility his words have. If he’s
serious about his outreach efforts (something I doubt) his next move needs to
be his best move. The CDC and Pfizer couldn’t make a panacea capable of eradicating
his past racial transgressions, or the racially insensitive attacks on Barack
Obama, but taking some bold steps in the right direction would be a good start
to open the space for future negotiations.

First, he should withdraw the nomination of Jeff Sessions for
Attorney General. It was painfully obvious watching his confirmation hearing
testimony that Sessions sees more law enforcement as a viable solution to
problems facing the inner-city. More police on the streets does not address the
socioeconomic factors that push kids into a life of crime. Redoubling the
presence of law enforcement in struggling communities and giving them carte
blanche to violate the civil rights of Americans based on race and ethnicity
might offer short-term relief to those looking at these problems from the safety
of their television screens, but it would further exacerbate the mistrust
between police departments and the communities they work in. Stop-and-Frisk was
a net failure that emboldened bad officers and put good officers in harm’s way.
Jeff Sessions' inability to give clear and succinct answers about investigations
into municipalities and police departments with problematic racial histories
was, to me, more disqualifying than his alleged racism. If he can’t or won’t acknowledge
the abuses of police power Federal probes have uncovered inside cities like
Ferguson and Chicago how can those communities trust him to do what’s in their best
interests?

Next, Donald Trump should ask for Steve Bannon’s resignation
and publicly disavow, in unambiguous terms, the white supremacist elements
inside the Alt-Right and other fringe groups he helped elevate. He can’t have
it both ways. His most loyal supporters have the rare ability to parse every Trump
tweet, and defend his almost weekly indefensible statements, but the majority
of Americans, irrespective of race, don’t have this ability. Donald Trump is
too comfortable with people who use terms like “feral” and “subhuman” to describe
ethnic and racial minorities. Whatever talents or skill set Steve Bannon has to
offer is offset by the platform he built for racists. Saying Trump is not a racist
doesn’t negate the racism he and Steve Bannon benefited from. Steve Bannon not
only provided a platform for racists to espouse their beliefs, but he profited from
it. Once someone knowingly benefits from racism it doesn’t matter if they are racist or
not.

Donald Trump has proven that he’s incapable of going more
than a few days without saying or tweeting something offensive. He needs to
build some trust. Anyone surprised that he would tweet out such a ridiculous statement
about Representative John Lewis on MLK weekend must have forgotten about a guy
named John McCain. Donald Trump’s inability to process critique of any kind
will be a hindrance to his ability to govern; this deficiency will affect all
Americans, but If Trump wants to show Black America he’s serious about his
outreach, he will quit trying to win us over with celebrities. Maybe he could seek
the counsel of the best and brightest Black people in America instead of the
richest and most entertaining. If he were to come up with policy proposals
capable of improving the lives of people affected by decades of bad trade agreements
and centuries of systemic racism, he could use his concrete actions to build the
bridge he destroyed with his mouth and Twitter account. Donald Trump’s symbolic Black celebrity photo
op outreach campaign is failing miserably. When he asked Black people, “what
the hell do you have to lose?” It was obvious he didn’t listen to what we were
saying about Trayvon, Tamir, Sandra, Freddie, Walter, or Philando. His rhetoric
and cabinet appointments are symptoms of his tone deafness.